Chosen Family
by MeredithBrody
Summary: The NOLA team come together to cheer Patton up (tag for 2x07)


**I know, I know. I'm a few eps behind on tags, but basically the annoying Aussie woman in ep 5 sapped my muse. I do have one almost finished for episode 6 that I'll post soon. But this one I needed to make the episode happy again. It's pairing free, other than the one canon pairing we have (aka there are a few James references in there) and is really just a NOLA children bonding thing. Enjoy.  
Shin xx**

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It had taken one look around the bullpen the moment they had all sent their reports in for the three of them to stand up and head in to Patton's office. They all knew that Patton had taken losing the young programmer harder than anyone else, possibly other than her mother. Her mother though had her own team to commiserate with tonight. Walking into Patton's office she just wrapped her arms around his upper body for a second in a hug then carried on into the room, seeing Sonja mirror her movements a second later. LaSalle was far more stoic, and just clapped a hand on his shoulder before speaking. "Hey."

"What are you guys doing here?" Patton asked in surprise, looking between the three of them as if he'd never seen them before. It was true, normally they would all be out of here by now, but so would he. Tonight, it seemed, they all just wanted to spend a little more time together.

"We all thought that it would be best if we didn't leave you alone right now." LaSalle said after a few seconds of thinking. It was rather obvious that they hadn't planned on what to say coming in here, or what they would say or do when they did. They all just needed to speak from the heart right now, to show Patton that he wasn't alone. Not at all.

"We've all lost someone who mattered, we know how it feels." Percy extrapolated on the point LaSalle had been dancing around. The one thing that Brody appreciated most about having Percy on the team was that she didn't hold her punches. She was blunt and forthright, and it worked brilliantly.

"No offense, but it's different." Patton shook his head and shrugged slightly. "I only knew the kid a couple of days." That was true enough, she'd known Emily all her life, and LaSalle had known Savannah since school. She didn't know who Percy had lost, but judging by what she said, Brody was willing to bet it was a long friendship too.

"Doesn't always take long for someone to have an impact." LaSalle was the first to think of something to say to that, and thankfully that gave her something to think about. Remembering all the cases she'd had where the victim or the family had personally affected her. It didn't always take long, and it could affect you in unexpected ways.

"Also don't matter how long you knew someone." Brody said quietly, reaching out from where she was perched on the edge of the desk to squeeze Patton's hand gently. "When they make that impact it's always gonna hurt when they go." She also knew from her mother that Patton had been trying to be optimistic for the boy. Trying seemed to be the operative word.

"I said we should all go get drunk, but Merri nixed that suggestion." Percy smiled, and Merri just narrowed her eyes slightly. This absolutely was not the time for the argument they'd had in the car back from the hospital to rear its head again. She didn't think that drinking tonight would be a good idea.

"Not the time, Sonja." She hissed quietly, glaring at the younger woman and shaking her head. Percy just smiled back at her, and Brody felt the urge to push her over or something similarly childish. For a moment she actually had to work to remember that they were federal agents.

"I appreciate it all but, I'd rather work." Brody looked over his shoulder, and she recognised the code that they were working on. She also knew that her mother and Patton had already agreed that he could carry on the work. In fact, Brody was certain her mother was thankful someone was willing to carry it on.

"You can work, we'll just sit in here, eating all the chips Brody had hidden in the cupboard." Her head snapped around to LaSalle at that and glared. She had been trying to figure out who was stealing the chips from her hiding place in the kitchen for months, so for LaSalle to give it up like this he must have decided he could find them anywhere.

"It's you who raids my chips." She said a minute later, thumping him hard on the arm. She used to punch Emily like that when she did something similar, and it reminded her that LaSalle had become a pseudo-brother in the time since she'd moved here, just like Patton and Sebastian had. All in very different ways.

He didn't seem to think it was a problem, and instead just grinned at her even wider. She hoped, at least, that some of this normal every day banter was helping Patton try and see that life went on, for all of them, and they could keep memories alive. In fact, it was their job to. LaSalle was clearly deciding that annoying her to the point of wanting to murder him was the best he could do to help. "Try and stop me."

"You don't want to challenge me to that." She threatened and laughed, then threw a bit of paper at him. It was always fun to do things like this, and she felt almost as though the emotional turmoil of the last couple of days was washing off of her too.

"Merri you should be with your mom." Patton eventually spoke again, looking directly at her. She'd already considered that, and before they'd even told the rest of the team, she and her mom had made plans for the following day. They both had other places to be.

"She's here three more days, and right now she'd just question me about James anyway." She knew that was coming, since she'd mentioned a few days earlier that James was back in her life. She knew that the questioning was coming as soon as they had time for the dinner they'd initially planned.

"Tension there too?" Percy asked, and Brody just laughed and shook her head. She hadn't realised that the problems between her and her mother had been quite so evident, but everyone involved had apparently noticed it. It had always been this way though, so she had almost always expected it. Even if it was terribly annoying. There was not much in her life that she and Olivia Brody didn't argue about, James was one of those rare things.

"Surprisingly not, the only guy I ever dated she approved of." That was probably to do with the fact that James had never been interested in Emily, nor had he really been interested in asking about her work. In fact, James had employed a policy of 'don't ask' when it came to her family, so it had counted in his favour.

"I still think we should all go get drunk." Percy repeated her earlier suggestion, and if Brody had had another paper ball she would have thrown it at Percy's head. It would have been easier. As it was she just stared then chuckled.

"Why do all of your suggestions involve getting drunk?" Brody asked and shook her head. She was pretty sure she hadn't drunk that much since she was in college. It seemed like such a foreign idea for her to still respond to everything with drinking. Though some situations had called for it.

"I'm twenty six." Percy replied with a smirk as the door opened again and Pride stepped through the door, it was obvious that he'd been wondering where his entire team had disappeared to, and had probably even checked the system to see if they'd left the building. He'd found them though, and mostly just looked curious.

"Children, what are we doing in here?" He asked when he was finally actually in the room, and as he looked round his agents she realised exactly how guilty they did sometimes look. Especially when it was clear that none of them really knew entirely what to answer.

"Trying to get Sonja to admit she has a drinking problem." LaSalle joined in Brody's teasing of Percy for her youthful determination to get them all drunk in times of emotional torment. It was actually helpful, and she did enjoy it very much, but today it just didn't seem entirely appropriate.

Percy shook her head as he spoke and laughed a little before stepping forward. "Not a problem, just an appreciation." Percy smiled and held her hand out as if to stop any further aspersions on her character. Brody liked that description of ways to describe drinking habits. She had an appreciation for the things she drank. That was a great way to think about it.

"You left me out of this?" Came another voice through the door, and a second later Sebastian and Loretta walked through the door, clearly coming to check on Patton too. They were all just worried about him, and though he was still far quieter than normal, he had at least stopped typing, and was watching his friends gathered around him.

"Wordy and nerdy, come on and join us." Percy smiled and waved Sebastian over to her with a smirk. The tiny agent's crush on the forensic specialist was something Brody would never understand, but it sure was cute. It seemed that Percy had decided to try and get Sebastian on board with her drinking plan. "Please tell me you'd be down for getting Triple P blind drunk."

"Sure, why not?" Sebastian replied after a few seconds, and Brody just sighed and held her hands up, giving in to the inevitable. She decided that she just wouldn't drink much herself. It really wouldn't be worth turning up to lunch with her mother hungover and explaining why.

"He's in." Percy cheered and laughed, then stepped behind Patton and took hold of his handles, waiting for the nod before starting to push. "Come on, last one to Pride's bar pays." That was where they always went these days, it was beginning to feel like a second home to the agents, and she didn't really mind that, she would take the chance to move her chip collection though, so she just waved them off.

"I just gotta do something here." She shouted after them when a couple looked back, and Pride stopped walking to, nodding to them all as they walked out. Brody heard Percy start explaining the rules of some drinking game that she definitely wasn't going to join.

"We'll meet you there." Pride echoed, waving the rest off under the watchful eye of Loretta, whom Brody was certain would stop most of them getting into too much trouble, at least for right now. Clearly Pride wanted to check that she'd survived this case OK, and she had to admit that it had been touch and go there for a while. "Not seeing your mom tonight?" He asked after a few seconds, and she realised he hadn't been in the room for that conversation.

"No, I've made plans to see her tomorrow. Besides, James can call tomorrow and for some reason she always loved him." She shrugged a little looking after the group that had stated off out toward the street and everything else that was their life here in New Orleans. this was where she was needed tonight. "And my chosen family needs me much more tonight."

"That's a nice way to look at it." Pride smiled and started leading her from the office, shutting the light off behind her as he did. It was another small gesture, but it really did matter when she thought of how much this place and these people had helped her start to move on from Emily's death. It could only ever be her chosen family.

"Before we leave, help me move my chips." She said, leading the way into the kitchen. She immediately ducked down to what was her cupboard and shook her head. He'd definitely raided it again recently. She then looked up to Pride and noticed the quizzical look on his face, which caused her to just burst out laughing. "LaSalle keeps stealing them."

He shook his head and laughed too as he leant down to help her move what was left in her cupboard. It was a silly little thing, but it really did make her feel more at home. "You really are children." Pride chuckled as they gathered it all up, and she couldn't help but smile again for a second.

"You wouldn't have us any other way." She nodded after a few seconds and stood up, her arms full of potato chips and the other goodies she stored in her cupboard. Every agent here had a cupboard like this, and one day she was going to raid LaSalle's.

"I guess I wouldn't." Pride admitted, and she just lead the way out to where she could move her favourite stash of potato chips. She clearly needed better hiding places though, and this was pretty much the only time she'd have where LaSalle wasn't here to find her doing it. Maybe this would stop him stealing her chips. After this though, she'd focus back on Patton and deal with her mother and everything else that was going on in her life tomorrow. It was better left for tomorrow anyway.


End file.
